Beloved of Her Father
by Madame Magna
Summary: (story under construction) Merit is the daughter of Yugi and Anzu, she's like any teenager in Domino City.Riding motorcycles with freinds,school drama,parent issues, dueling for a bra ,and fighting monsters who've escaped from their cards. Turning fifteen wasn't supposed to bring such trouble,however, what day doesn't go by in Domino City without something involving duel monsters?
1. Prologue

-Prologue-

Yugi Mouto after graduating high school, remained a top competitor in many important duel monster's competitions. Wishing to avoid a suit over no payment due for the King of Games (despite the title being given to an certain pharaoh), Seto Kaiba, reluctantly, footed the bill for each match Yugi participated or appeared in. Yugi's name and title brought good publicity and integrity to his company as a plus. Yugi had a good run as King of Games.

However, after fifteen or so years on the throne, he stepped down around the age of thirty. The greatest reason being was parenthood. Deciding, albeit with some of familial pressures, when He and Anzu had their little girl a few years back, it was more important to be responsible father and not a champion and King of Games. Having a history and anthropology degree, with some connections,Yugi was able to obtain a job as an Egyptian curate for the Domino Museum. Sometime after Grandpa Mouto's death,Yugi also took on the game shop. Neither job paid as big as dueling, but, it was plenty enough for a small family. As the years of not dueling flew by, Yugi settled into the role of being a father. Juggling the stress and struggles of two jobs and his preschool daughter, Merit,Yugi took each day with his usual can do attitude, caring ,and commitment to his daughter. Anzu however, didn't quiet settle down as quietly as her Duel Monsters champion partner.

Despite having fewer dancing opportunities being older and pregnant, her past American misadventures came back to haunt her. While Yugi never judged Anzu's past mistakes and poor choices, he couldn't keep quiet when reading the gossip articles. Each day was a topic surrounding her alcoholism, steroid use and possible lawsuit involving the loss of intellectual and company property. Yugi worried for Merit's future and the possible harassment from other people. He begged and asked Anzu to seek help for her problems. Anzu refused. Not wanting to let motherhood be the reason she quit her dream, she wanted to show Merit that hard work and commitment could achieve her dreams.

Yugi pressured her still. Nothing he said or did worked towards getting Anzu to quit. Neither was Yugi able to shield Merit from her watching her dancing star mother from becoming the biggest dancing flop during a football tournament. To his horror, Merit watched live from an American Football game, Anzu collapsed and passed out. Later, it was said that Anzu died on stage. Anzu's cause of death was a blood clot to her brain caused by her mixing medications and overdose. Yugi's heart couldn't have weighed any heavier when losing Anzu and having Merit watch her mother collapse publically.

It doesn't matter how many goodbyes he would say or smiles or laughs in the memory of those he lost. The pain of loss stung deeply for Yugi. On the day Anzu was cremated, Joey and Honda now policemen. banished any and all paparazzi from the funeral for Anzu. People came to give their prayers. Mai, Bakura, Ryuji, Shizuka (Joey's sister) and even Mokuba with his kid,Noah. Yugi never forget the expression on Merit's face whose world shrunk from the loss of her mother, he felt like such a failure. The most shocking part of the whole thing was that Merit never cried. From the moment she watched her mother pass suddenly on live television to having her picture set up on the family alter. Not a single tear. Yugi tried to speak to Merit after the funeral,she wouldn't say a word. The day after, he stood in front of the family alter and let out a sob. Yugi felt alone, unsure of what to do next, Merit seemed distant and quiet, deep down his stomach flopped and did backflips to his feet as did his heart. He was an emotional wreck. In his sorrowful stance, he Remembering what an old friend once told him.

" _Get up Yugi. A champion shouldn't be on his knees…._ "

It was a rough thing to say to himself after all that happened, but, he needed to move on with life. Accept what happened and try to make every day as normal again for Merit. Even if Anzu wasn't the perfect mother, Merit was important. Her life was only beginning. He was going to be the best father he could. Stand there when she needed him, be the parent that would prepare her for life later on, but also cheer her on when she needs the words and the encouragement to hear them. He wasn't stupid in thinking that it would be easy being a single parent, but, for Merit he was willing to do anything for. She was worth it.


	2. authors note

before you read anymore into my fic, I want to explain some concepts first.

The fic follows the aftermath of Atem going into the afterlife, there was no GX or any of other series afterwards. I might also mention that this fic is completely separate in regards to Dark side of Dimensions movie. The reason is I was writing it before I watched the movie. I liked the various aspects of the movie,but, I still want my fic to be completely its own timeline and storyline. Just to make it easier for you readers and for me writing. My fic will contain manga/original anime canon and concepts,If you don't like this then proceed to move on to another fic. If this doesn't bother you, please read on,review and send me messages for questions,critiques or just indepth reviews. :)

I don't own Yugioh, its manga and anime


	3. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: growing pains

To the surprise of both her parents,Merit became an adapt game player and puzzle solver. Dancing,singing and joyriding with Mom and Aunt Mai was tossed aside for board games,cards, and mind puzzles. Every day coming from preschool, Merit wanted to play chess and checkers with dad and poker with Joey. Yugi could hardly contain himself with joy of having a kid who loved games. Every day He made it so that there was a new game, a new puzzle for her to solve. Teaching how to develop sharp intuition, clever guesswork and critical thinking. Merit was about five or six years old when things started changing. For some strange reason, Anzu was not wanting to come home. Staying up late into the night for a phone call, skype message,email, any means of talking to her mother. Every time she would ask her dad why, he couldn't explain her mothers sudden need for distance. Each day was painful, all the other girls she knew at school had moms who were home, where was hers? Mothers day? Parent-Teacher meetings?Plays? Not one of these events did Anzu show up for. Every night,Merit prayed with earnest. She begged God to bring her mom home. Come home mom! she would pour herself into emails upon emails upon letters and messages….Sadly Mom, would never come home.

At the time of her mothers death, Merit was about nine years old. Having endured such a long period of distance from her mother, the love she had towards her faded with time…given up wishing and hoping for the mother she knew and loved to come home. It took only two years for Merit to realize, her mother did not want her. She was not what her mother wanted for a daughter. Would you shed tears for someone regretting your existence?

When she started school, Merit hoped to make friends,build relationships that would resemble that of her went to school optimistic and putting up with the shock of her being the daughter of the King of Games. She expected people to come to her with questions,but,her hopes for friends dwindled as the majority of her classmates only came to her to talk only about her became clear no one wanted to know her. Daily she was asked questions from classmates resembling this: "what is his technique? "How does he do it?" Is there like a lucky charm or something?" Is he really short? "is he going to come back from retirement? And more like these cascaded one after the other throughout her time spent in elementary school.

Inside her heart, cynicism grew and the craving for attention caused Merit to turn to dangerous antics. These antics involved paying high school students to loan their motorcycle bikes for a joy ride, daring teachers to solve a puzzle for cups of coffee among other things,traps set up in restroom,these were a few to count. Often Yugi was called to Merit's school for causing disruptions and causing damage to school property. Being constantly called to her school, Yugi had to quit the job at the museum. Merit certainly developed a reputation of her own,disregarding her dads concerns for her staying in school or even her safety. She wanted to keep this up,even a bad reputation is still one not recognized as her parents. Her antics gave her a reputation at her school as a rebel,troublemaker, and daredevil. She loved every word of it.


	4. Chapter 2

p style="margin: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"Chapter 2: Good Morning Domino City part 1./p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"July 26,six style="font-size: 11.25px; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;" /spanprobably a few minutes after. The now fifteen year old Merit woke up early for a personal and secret reason. Getting up now meant she would avoid her Dad stopping her from doing what she wanted to do. Its highly useful knowing your parents not waking up till about nine, nine-thirty. She planned to have fun and her Dad would be none the wiser for what she was going to do. Afterall, what fun it is to break rules? Quickly, she slipped on a pair of metallic black jock type shinny shorts, biker boots, short leather jacket, underneath that was a neon blue sports bra and striped crop top. Slipping past her Dad's bedroom, leaving through the backdoor, Merit left in absolute silence. Looking at her phone, she got a text from a guy who offering his bike to ride for a fee of a hundred yen. How could she turn that down? She earned a small allowance, but, Aunt Mai offered her a small amount of cash at New Years and she made a small bit of money doing peoples homework. Unknown to her what Merit would do with it./p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"With her secret red and black neko-helmet and swim pouch, Merit drove off on a Yamaha cruiser. She loved the speed and the rush. The energy and rush of air flowing past her, through her mass of black hair and gold bands, up her back and across her face. Wearing sunglasses to avoid the glare of the morning sun. Being so early, she was able to ride on the quiet roads of Domino without mass traffic or a lot of police cars. She was only going to one destination: Mokuba Kaiba's place. Her classmate Noah lived with his dad, Mokuba and his partner, she wanted to go to the beach, meeting up with some boys from school and who better to gawk and hang out with than him? /p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"Approaching the house, Merit knew one way in that wouldn't cause sounds and alarms to go off. Hacking into the front lock pad, she went through the front gate and up the drain pipe to Noah's window. Peeking in, Noah was an absolute neat freak, liking organization and function than Merits messy lifestyle. Tapping on the glass,she waited for him to wake. Eventually he did was stumbled his way towards the window. Rubbing his eyes. /p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;""Uhnn….Merit,stop, you'll wake my parents and I don't need to be explaining why my best friend is outside my window" He scorned Merit. /p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"Lightly chuckling at his attempt at getting her to behave and be conciderable at that moment. Merit jumped through the now opened window to just sit on the windowsill. /p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;""You're paranoid, also, I told you we'd be going to the beach today and you are just now awake? Merit returned the rebuff towards her friend. /p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;""I didn't expect the rider to be escorting me around dawn. I was thinking like normal people, sometime in the afternoon" Noah replied, slipping on shorts,a shirt and socks. /p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;""Don't forget, to bring your swim trunks this time, I bet Opal will be there and she'll definitely be wanting to check you out" Merit reminded as she saw him pack into his bag,high spf sunscreen,sunglasses and shoes. Noah was always better prepared for what was to be a simple outing./p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;""You got burned the last time we went to the beach ,I don't want to hear about me forgetting my swim trunks"Noah turned to a quick retort to Merits mocking his over-prepared nature. /p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"Merit had known Noah since middle school. He was a shy newcomer being bullied by some of the older boys who liked to take his fancy phone, lunch money, toys. Merit just stood up for him and he hung around her. Eventually sitting at the lunch table,talking with her and hanging out outside of school. Her and Noah were inseparable. Finally dressed,Noah had them leaving through the front door. Being quiet too to avoid waking his parents. "Sigh…another bike? Your dad isn't going to be quiet about it if you get hurt again. Remember last time you didn't watch the dude with his scooter"Noah groaned seeing the bike Merit had rented. "He won't and I have gotten better. Also, if we get this bike before one, I don't have to lose a contact,let's go! She ushered Noah on the back of her. Noah reluctantly got on and Merit drove off quickly./p 


	5. Chapter 3

p style="margin: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"Chapter 3-Good Morning Domino City part 2 /p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"Mornings for Yugi Motou were simple. A warm cup of green tea, toast with jam and almond butter,and a prayer to the family alter before opening up the game shop. Behind the counter,Yugi sat down in an antique leather chair his grandpa sat in for years before his death. Turning his eyes to a table,cluttered with business papers,letters,invoices, and pictures of Anzu,Grandpa,old high school photo and Merit. Looking at his calendar, today was Merits fifteenth birthday. A gentle smile grew from a thought. Its amazing how fifteen years flew by. Getting up,he opened a cabinet that held the family alter. Inside pictures of his Mom, Grandpa,Grandma, and Anzu set side by side a gold box. The same box where the puzzle was kept. Pressing his fingertips against the eye on the solid gold box. He mused./p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;""Its been so long now~little over thirty years since I had to say goodbye to you,old friend" Yugi attention was drawn to a gift wrapped jewelry box beside Anzu's a little over eight years to see what Anzu had gotten for Merit for this day. It was the last gift Anzu got for Merit. /p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;""Heh…yeah, its been too long…" Yugi mused again,he then thought about Merit. "I just hope she isn't doing anything reckless and isn't escorted home-" His phone alarm sounded off. it was time for the stop to open. His attention shifted again./p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;""OH! He saw the time on the clock. "Its time to open for business! Yugi leaves the shrine to open the doors of the shop./p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"Meanwhile down the highway outside the city, Merit with her panicking passenger zoomed along the roads on the cruiser bike. Noah sitting behind Merit terrified,cursing himself to have agreed to coming along. How no one had stopped them for being ten miles over the speed limit, was anyone's guess. Merit however,was in dreamland, the driving wild was a thrill left over from when her mom was alive, Sunday mornings were spent speeding on the highways with Aunt Mai. By nine in the morning,they approached the beach. Seeing from only half a mile ahead, the two could see people scattered along the Domino City shores. It was easy to see the hoards of people crowding around the food stands for air conditioning and umbrellas to shield them from the already high sun. Slowing down their speed, the two cruised past the groups of Girls in one pieces or bikini's, boys in trunks,shorts or briefs. Noah felt self-conscious. He felt so scrawny, whereas Merit didn't care or paid attention. Parking the motorbike, Merit hopped off./p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;""AH, the beach! Humid air, semi dry sandy powder and people. Shall we get changed and become one with the crowds? Merit turned to Noah seeing him quickly stepping off the bike,kissing the ground before he ran towards her. /p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;""Uh,yea…I'll let up a spot under an umbrella and chill" Noah said to Merit. Merit looked at her friend,who looked pale and sickly. /p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;""Are you okay? She asked. "I'm fine,just,prevented myself from puking at the back of your helmet while driving at high speeds" Noah groaned in discomfort to his semi motion sickness. Merit handed a bottle of water she got from a nearby vending machine. Taking the bottle happily,he watched Merit leave him alone to change./p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"Noah got changed first and sooner than Merit did, wearing his usual grey tank and stripped swim claiming a spot with an umbrella. Fighting anyone who dare come near to steal it. Laying out the blanket, turning on the radio and prepping his skin with the sunscreen. He saw the other girls walk by they waved and giggled at him. Being a Kaiba kid came with some perks. Standing and attempting to show muscle to show off. A couple girls laughed at his wimpy attempts to impress with muscle. Or lack there of. Money and brains with a plenty,but, not so much bravado was in his favor. /p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;""Noah,stop embarrassing yourself"Noah's attention was caught, he turned to the location of the voice. His face became lightly flushed from what he saw who called him./p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"Merit walked closer to her flowing hair brushed under a wide brimmed hat, wide golden sunglasses,a multi-color geometric front knot two piece with a black shawl tied around her hip,the extra fabric flew in the wind. In comparison to Merit, Noah was not flashy. His scrawny figure,rounded face,pointed chin,grey blue eyes and brown hair made him for a plain looking teen. No one would notice him in a crowd,but, he was fine with Merit being the better looking of the two. He simply struggled to keep himself calm,collected and not bleeding from his nose. /p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;""How does your Dad not know you have this? Because the last suit you wore was a black and red one piece" Noah asked. /p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;""Easy, I bought it off amazon yesterday" She winked with her response,sitting down beside Noah. Chuckling inwardly because Noah can't handle a little skin./p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"Both looked around the beach, more and more people showed up. Noah sat at the edge of the blanket,sun screen over his face and chest. He felt quiet comfortable laying on the warm sand underneath him. Merit leaned against the umbrella pole, sipping her cherry lemon-limeade as she watched her classmates playing games like volleyball,Frisbee, and beach soccer. /p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;""Remember Noah,we can't stay long,I have to get the bike back to the dude around one this afternoon"Merit reminded as learned close to poke her friend in the side. Disturbing his little nap./p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;""Yea, yea,I gotcha, just trying to get a tan is all" He hummed laying comfortably,returning back to his light snooze./p  
p style="margin: 1em 0px 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;""AIEEEE! My top! where did it go? A girls screamed echoed. Merit's ears turned to see a girl a few spaces down having lost her top. The boys ran to find the top snatching perv. Merit sighed."A poor kid likely was dared to take a girls top more than likely" Merit thought. Laying down, Merit rests her head on her warmth of the sun causing her to nap. /p 


End file.
